News From Australia.
Australia celebrates 200 years of honey bees and commercial beekeeping with a delightful new two-dollar coin. I was honoured to receive a special collector’s coin on my recent birthday from my nephew and admin support, Iain Wilson, from Sydney. Iain is interested in finding wild colonies and he showed me several busy nests in some Parramatta gum trees on my last visit to Australia. I shall never forget the rich combination of perfumes from volatile eucalyptus and propolis in the heat of the Aussie sun. Even as the sun was going down the scent was strong, and, combined with the sound of parrots settling for the night, it remains an evocative scene.
Australia has around 2,000 native species of bee, but until 200 years ago there were no honey bees on the continent. The first colonies were shipped out from the UK on the Isabella and commercial beekeeping grew from then on. You can hear about the history of Australian beekeeping, and the new coin in a fascinating radio programme.
Bad News.
Varroa destructor arrived in Australia this week at the port of Newcastle on the east coast of NSW. This is really bad news for a country already contending with the challenges of small hive beetle, and extreme climate events including fires and floods.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-06-24/varroa-mite-detected-at-newcastle-port/101180446
Visit From BeeCraft Co-Editor.
Dr Stephen Fleming called in for a flying 24- hour visit on his way home from a trip to Orkney last week. Here he is admiring one of my favourite colonies. The window cleaner was upset that this colony had no landing board, like most of the others, so I bodged together a home made job to appease Stuart who had been watching foragers returning home heavily laden in strong winds.
Along with Richard Rickitt, Stephen edits the UK’s prestigious beekeeping magazine, BeeCraft. BeeCraft caters for all levels of beekeeping with relevance to both hobbyists and bee farmers. It features articles from contributers all over the UK, and world, which is useful when you consider that beekeeping management differs slightly from Devon to Dundee, and beyond, due to climate, culture, and weather.
Despite more strong winds during Stephen’s visit it was warm. We walked up to see the wild bees in the larch tree on the edge of Cawdor woods soon after he arrived. Next day we visited biodynamic gardener Vaselios in Auchendoune’s magnificient vegetable garden where we also watched wild bees fly under the roof below an upstairs window of Countess Cawdor’s house. We were told that they have lived there continually for 40 years and Vaselios has caught and hived their recent swarms which have not yet been tested for genetic history.
We went on to my out-apiary in a walled garden and admired the entrances to 4 wild nests in the wall where in the past gardeners kept the espaliered fruit trees warm in spring by lighting fires and sending heat up through the chimney system.
Stephen mentioned wanting to see a working Glen hive so we paid an impromtu visit on the way home to Paul Carter who was underneath his car fixing something. Paul dusted himself down and wiped the oil off his hands and took us on a tour. We saw the Glen hive at the garden gate and another double-walled hive near his recently made pond which is already attracting numbers of dragonflies and other aquatic species. He has a flourishing WBC hive tucked in amongst the foxgloves near the summer house.
Preparing For The Summer Honey Crop.
After the intensity of swarm season this year, and a few other unforseen challenges, it’s great to take a breather and catch up on easy tasks and preparations for the last summer nectar flow. I like to collect honey in sections and Ross rounds as there will be a high proportion of heather honey, until the recently re-planted neareby forest grows up. Heather honey is tricky to extract without expensive kit because it is thixotropic and a gel until stirred making it impossible to extract in an extractor like most other honey crops without a lot of work agitating the cells.
It’s even more relaxing and so much easier if you can recruit a dexterous assistant to do the job of putting together the somewhat fragile basswood section frames. It requires care and skill that Linton picks up easily after the first couple of boxes, and there are no serious breakages or snapping of wood. The secret is to thorougly dampen the joints before bending them into shape. I learned this technique from the late Jimmy Welch, a retired gamekeeper and local beekeeper, who never used anything other than sections to produce honey.
Welcome.
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Interesting read as usual. I’m the lucky owner of not only one of those pretty bee coins. At first I was told by the Australian mint that they were sold out, but not accepting defeat immediately I contacted a Swedish friend who lives in Australia she managed to buy me two coins. I can now frame them so front and back shows. I also listened to the radio broadcast about the Australian bees and the history behind the coin. Sorry to hear that Australia now have Varroa – hope they can eradicate it before it spreads all over the country.
Thank you for your positive comments, and for sharing your interest in the Australiam coins and the history behind them, Paul. It sounds like you are a collector of coins? Are these all sorts of coins, or bee-related coins? If you have a collection of bee coins would you be willing to share photos with beelistener readers in a guest blog please?
No, I don’t collect coins normally, I just liked the look of those ones.
Thank you, Ann, for presenting photos of the Glen Hive and the walled garden. Both are fascinating.
Great to know, too, that the wild colonies around you–in larch tree, stone walls, and Countess Cawdor’s house–are still going strong (without treatments for Varroa).
Interesting, too, to read about the older beekeeper who honey production was entirely in basswood sections. Classic, and classy.
Thank you for reading the blog and for your enthusiastic comments. I’m glad that you find the stories interesting. I have to say that one colony at Countess Cawdor’s garden has died out after 3 years with no varroa treatment. This was the first swarm that I helped catch and install in a hive, but I suspect it came from a nearby apiary. Judging by the light stipey bees I am guessing that they are from a colony that I sold to a beekeeper not too far away. The dead colony’s hive is now occupied by a swarm that came from the roof so it will be interesting to know how they survive. They are darker bees. Sadly, I may not find out what happens as I might not have further connections with the garden since my gardener friend there is moving south very soon.